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STUDENTS' AWARENESS ON GENDER INEQUALITY: CAN WE IMPROVE IT?

Conference Paper · November 2017

DOI: 10.21125/iceri.2017.0239

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 STUDENTS' AWARENESS ON GENDER INEQUALITY: CAN WE
IMPROVE IT?
Teresa Bartual-Figueras1, Montserrat Carbonell-Esteller2; Anna Carreras-
Marín3; Josep Colome Ferrer4; Joaquim Turmo-Garuz5
1
Universitat de Barcelona (SPAIN)
2
Universitat de Barcelona (SPAIN)
3
Universitat de Barcelona (SPAIN)
4
Universitat de Barcelona (SPAIN)
5
Universitat de Barcelona (SPAIN)

Abstract
University’s curricula do not frequently include the gender perspective, neither explicitly or implicitly in
the teaching plans. Teaching at the university is often presumed to be ideologically neutral and
objective, but regarding gender, it is not. Our concerns on that, have driven us to a transversal project,
in which we aim to introduce the gender perspective into the training of our students. We have
implemented a pilot gender project in economy and history subjects on a Business and Administration
Grade as well as in a Grade of Political Sciences. We have particularly designed activities around how
to measure GDP, public policies, the effect of crisis and its recovery, and the role played by women
over time. By introducing those topics in our teaching, our main goal has been to evaluate if they had
an impact on the awareness of students about gender inequality. To assess the effect of the pilot
exercises, we have used some questionnaires during the academic year 2016/17.They were
answered by 201 students. A first questionnaire was done two weeks in advance, and a second one
was done two weeks after the exercise had been fulfilled. Results show that the introduction of specific
knowledge on gender improves the awareness of the students on this type of inequality as well as
their global concerns on the mainstream economic thinking. Additionally, they develop more skills on
critic and analytical thinking. We can also state that the actions of the teachers on that direction have a
positive impact on the students' conscientiousness on gender inequality.
Keywords: gender, university, transversal approaches, critic thinking.

1 INTRODUCTION
There are several crucial social challenges in the 21st century. Society is becoming more and more
complex and heterogeneous. Social inequality has increased, migrations are perceived as a threat by
some communities, discrimination against minorities arise everywhere as a reaction to the
globalization forces, populism is dominating the political arena in many countries, and the traditional
political and social balances and consensus are weakening. In that context, the University should play
a role. It cannot stay apart of the social changes, it should be involved into them and to prepare the
students to understand what is going on around them. The university should provide knowledge, skills
and tools to face the causes of inequality and the social and political instability. Gender inequality is
only one dimension of a more broad and ambitious task that the university should take into
consideration [1] [2] [3].
Gender issues have not yet been addressed into the academia. Most of the academic curriculums
follow a very marked androcentric approach, in which female experiences remain invisible. If we aim
to contribute to a social emancipation of women, it is necessary to include the gender approach in as
many as possible of our subjects in the university [3]. It is in this line that a group of teachers of the
Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Barcelona raise the need to incorporate the
gender perspective in their teaching. They aim providing a global and critical view on different subjects
of Economics, questioning gender stereotypes and showing that the social conditions of inequality
between men and women respond to a complex system of social relations and power described in the
concept of patriarchy [4].
In the teaching of Economics, we must bear in mind that orthodox economics only considers a very
limited economic sphere of production that with a monetary consideration. Consequently, it does not
take into account the role of domestic units of production in the economic system. It is based, then, on
the market production process and not on the forces that determine the process of life and are linked
to needs, aspirations, insecurities and conflicts. With these premises, the orthodox economic theories
do not allow to raise central elements like the process of social reproduction of the population, which
implies to consider the conditions of life as a final effect of the process of production and accumulation
of capital [5].
In contrast to the orthodox economics, in the subject of Economics, it has been made an attempt to
introduce a multidisciplinary vision in order to emphasize the connections between the spheres of
production (market) and social reproduction (domestic sphere) as well as the role that the latter plays
in the reproduction of the economic system as a whole.
Related to the History subject, traditional textbooks have been abandoned and it has been chosen a
gender perspective. One of the main aims has been to highlight the economic and social roles played
by women in both preindustrial societies and the industrialization process. In this sense, the role
played by women in social movements has been highlighted. It has also been questioned the topic of
working women as a product of the industrial revolution, emphasizing that during the process of
consolidation of the new market economy and the new liberal paradigm it was when domestic
activities and work related to care became invisible and empty of economic content. The history of
domestic work and care became since then part of the natural history, according to the mainstream
narratives [6].
According to all the previously mentioned, we think that the gender perspective should be included in
the curricular itineraries at the university, and this will be the way to offer a competitive training and to
achieve the excellence as it is suggested by the European as well as the Spanish's legislative
framework [1].

2 METHODOLOGY
The methodological perspective that follows this study is qualitative or interpretative. Our goal is to
analyze teaching actions and methods that can have an incidence on the students' understanding on
gender biases in the social sciences. The focus is on understanding how students construct their
perceptions in order to encourage their awareness on gender. We have implemented a pilot gender
project in economy and history subjects on a Business and Administration Grade as well as in a Grade
of Political Sciences. We have particularly designed activities around how to measure GDP, public
policies, the effect of crisis and its recovery, and the role played by women over time. By introducing
those topics in our teaching, our main goal has been to evaluate if they had an impact on the
awareness of students about gender inequality.
The methodology followed here has consisted in the design of several teaching actions in order to
have an impact on the students' awareness about gender issues. More particularly, we have get use
of readings focusing different fields of the teaching plan from the perspective of gender as well as we
have organized a conference of experts in the classroom to discuss around these themes. In order to
evaluate the impact of those teaching actions, we have used some questionnaires during the
academic year 2016/17. Two hundred and one students answered them. A first questionnaire was
done two weeks in advance, and a second one was done two weeks after the exercise had been
fulfilled. Figure 1 shows the questions and the range of the answers. The answers have been
classified by gender.

Question 1_Do you think that the way GDP is calculated is gender neutral?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
less female gender less male
activities neutrality activities

Question 2_ Public policies are ….?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
more in gender more in
favour of neutral favour of
females males
Question 3_ Is there gender inequality in your closest social environment (family and friends)?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
extremely not at all
high

Question 4_After an economic crisis, as the one of 2008: what kind of jobs do recover faster?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
jobs of both jobs jobs of
females recover males
equally

Table 1. Questionnaire

3 RESULTS
We present here the results by each one of the questions of table 1, distinguishing the answers of
females (W), males (M) and the totals (T). The graph on the left shows the answers given before the
teaching activity, meanwhile the graph on the right show the answers after it. As for the neutrality of
gender in the calculus of GDP, figure 2 shows that there was initially a perception of a bias against
activities carried out by women, but after the activity was performed in class that perception increased,
especially among women (see the blue bars).

Figure 1. Question 1_Comparison of answers before and after the teaching action

Regarding the gender bias of public policies, figure 2 shows the answers of the students. In this case,
also, the perception between the two surveys has changed. Before the activity, 56.8% of the answers
are between 5 and 7 (policies more favourable to men). After the activity, the answers between 5 and
7 reach 65.5 percent. The change is less important in this case, because there already was initially a
bias toward a greater weight of public policies that favour men.

Figure 2. Question 2_Comparison of answers before and after the teaching action

Figure 3 presents the answers for the question about gender inequality perceived in the social
environment (family and friends). There are some changes although in this case the answers are more
dispersed. Women show a greater perception of gender inequality, similar to the first question.
 Figure 3. Question 3_Comparison of answers before and after the teaching action

Finally, we can observe the answers about the recovering of jobs after an economic crisis in Figure 4.
We can clearly see how the change is significant for both females and males.

Figure 4. Question 4_Comparison of answers before and after the teaching action

4 CONCLUSIONS
Results show that the introduction of specific knowledge on gender improves the awareness of the
students on this type of inequality as well as their global concerns on the mainstream economic
thinking. Additionally, they develop more skills on critic and analytical thinking. Women react more to
these topics as they have shown more changes in their responses after the teaching actions. We can
also state that the actions of the teachers on that direction have a positive impact on the students'
perceptions on gender inequality.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank the financial support of the 2015PID-UB/033 of the University of Barcelona, as well as the
GIDHEPSUB-Grup d’Innovació Docent en Història Econòmica, Política i Social de la Universitat de
Barcelona and the gireUBee- Grup d’innovació i recerca docent universitària basada en l’àmbit de
l’economia i l’empresa.

REFERENCES
[1] Donoso Vázquez, T. & Anna Velasco Martínez, A. (2013), “¿Por qué una propuesta de
formación en perspectiva de género en el ámbito universitario?”. Profesorado: Revista de
curriculum y formación del profesorado, vol. 17, núm. 1, págs. 71-88.
[2] Biglia, B. & Vergés, N. (2016), “Cuestionando la perspectiva de género en la investigación”.
REIRE. Revista d'Innovació i Recerca en Educació, vol. 9, núm. 2.
[3] Izquierdo, M.J., Mora, E. & Duarte, L. (2008), Cuidado y provisión: el sesgo de género en
las prácticas universitarias y su impacto en la función socializadora de la universidad.
Madrid: Ministerio de Igualdad, Instituto de la Mujer.
[4] Millett, K. (1970). Sexual Politics. New York: Doubleday.
[5] Carrasco Bengoa, C. (2017), “La economía feminista. Un recorrido a través del concepto de
reproducción”. Ekonomiaz: Revista vasca de economía, 91, 2017, págs. 52-77.
[6] Perrot, M. (2006), Mon histoire des femmes. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

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